Click sound before playing any audio

Support Sound
1

Hello all,

starting with the latest update, I encountered a click sound that was audible on the speakers right before playing any audio.

The cause seems to be the soundcard being suspended when idle so it has to be woken up each time something is to be played. This wake-up process seems to cause the click sound.

Looks like there is a solution as outlined here: pulseaudio - Sound output starts delayed - Ask Ubuntu :

  1. Disable suspend on idle for the soundcard (source: PulseAudio - ArchWiki ):
    Comment out the following line in the configuration file in use (~/.config/pulse/default.pa or /etc/pulse/default.pa):
### Automatically suspend sinks/sources that become idle for too long
# load-module module-suspend-on-idle
  1. If using the Intel sound driver, run sudo touch /etc/pm/power.d/intel-audio-powersave
  2. Reboot.
2 Likes
2

Update:
The same effect also occurs when using pipewire.

Here, the solution is a bit more complex.
At first, copy /usr/share/pipewire/media-session.d/alsa-monitor.conf to ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d for a starting point.
Change the following settings:

api.alsa.ignore-dB = false # This reduces popping sounds while booting due to hardware initialization
node.pause-on-idle      = false # This reduces popping / clicking sounds before starting audio playback
session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0      # 0 disables suspend 
api.alsa.start-delay    = 1024 # For older hardware

You may also comment out the line

#suspend-node

in ~/.config/pipewire/media-session.d/media-session.conf.

Second, copy /usr/share/pipewire/pipewire.conf to ~/.config/pipewire.
Then, change the following parameters there:

    ## Properties for the DSP configuration.
    default.clock.rate        = 44100
    default.clock.quantum     = 2048
    default.clock.min-quantum = 1024
    default.clock.max-quantum = 8192

These settings are necessary to avoid stuttering audio during video playback, in particular on older and slower machines.

After having applied all the settings, reboot for the changes to take effect.

The issue is discussed at loud popping sound and initial stutter when playing all media (#983) · Issues · PipeWire / pipewire · GitLab

2 Likes
3

@ DAC324
Thanks.
This is what I was looking for.

4

this pop or click sound can also happen when you have TLP and use the laptop battery;
the default behavior is to suspend the audio card,and when it resume,it may cause a click sound.
so you have to disable SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT from 1 to 0.

5

There is another annoyance I now experience after installing easyeffects:
Every time I start some audio playback, Easyeffects Sink is selected as default output, and I have to switch it back to my normal audio output, alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo, in order to be able to hear anything.

What causes this behavior, and is there a way to circumvent it?

6

Where is that?

7

Just to amend: This is not in the pipewire configuration but in the tlp config files, in particular /etc/default/tlp.

Here are a few details: https://askubuntu.com/questions/867849/16-04-laptop-cuts-power-when-headphones-were-plugged-in

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Summary

Linux Power Management & Monitoring with TLP & Powertop - YouTube

9

Thank you! That clicking sound was making me mad! Now it’s gone.

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